Prime Minister Mark Carney has tapped Morgan Breitkreutz, a veteran Liberal organizer, to quarterback his government’s response to the Alberta separatist referendum vote scheduled for October. Mr. Breitkreutz joined the Prime Minister’s Office this month as a senior special adviser. Before then, he was the chief of staff to Eleanor Olszewski, an Edmonton MP who has two ministerial roles for...
The Liberals continue to lead with 48 per cent support among decided voters, down two points since June 1. Prime Minister Mark Carney is going to be doing much more this summer than flipping burgers and pancakes.
CBC News analysis finds IDF blasts caused damage deep underground. Families of Canadian servicemen buried in Gaza say they want the government to do more to protect their loved ones' remains. Some say they would like to see their relatives — the last Canadian soldiers to be buried overseas — removed from a cemetery that has been repeatedly damaged by...
Statue is in storage as city debates whether it should be restored, modified or permanently removed. An imposing statue honouring Samuel de Champlain, which had stood on the shores of Lake Couchiching in Orillia, Ont., for 100 years, is now dismantled and moved out of sight. The founder of Quebec City is face down and wrapped in blue tarp. Some...
Premier pushed back at questions from reporters about his poll numbers and an altered image of protesters at Ford Fest. Premier Doug Ford said he’d form a “super majority” if another election were held today, pushing back against reporters’ questions about falling poll numbers. “I saw different polls. But I'll tell you one thing: if the election was held today...
The latest Leger federal polling shows a stable federal landscape: the Liberals continue to lead nationally, the Conservatives hold their ground, and Canadians’ assessment of the Carney government remains more positive than negative. Among decided voters, the Liberals hold 48% support, followed by the Conservatives at 34%. The NDP and Bloc Québécois each stand at 6%, while the Green Party...
Canadians outside Alberta remain overwhelmingly committed to the idea of a united country and many appear willing to entertain significant changes to the federation if doing so helps keep Alberta in Canada. Three-quarters (76%) of Canadians living outside Alberta say they want Alberta to remain part of Canada, including 63% who say they strongly want it to stay. Only 4%...
Parliament has risen for the summer, and it is yet again a key time for political parties to tend to all-important local political concerns that ultimately drive the successes or failures of Members of Parliament. For Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberals—except for flag waving around the World Cup and big hopes that Canada goes on a run on...
To be a successful leader in politics, you need a few things: a vision for the country, a plan to realize it and an ability to articulate why you are the right person to lead the journey. British prime minister Keir Starmer possesses none of these things. That’s why he’s been forced to resign his post. It’s expected he’ll be...
Prime Minister Mark Carney‘s corporate past has prevented him from participating in at least 17 “situations” involving his own government, including discussions of a payout of up to $3.1 billion to support housing loans, the possible export of electricity to the United States, and the creation of this week’s new nuclear energy plan. The revelation is contained in letters that...
In mid-April, the federal government caught the country’s organized labour sector by surprise when it revealed plans to review the Canada Labour Code, the suite of laws that underpin work in federally regulated sectors, from airlines and railways to banks and telecoms. Ottawa called the review an attempt to “modernize the federal labour relations framework,” and its announcement included proposals...
Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon’s recent acknowledgment that new legislation may be needed to accelerate approvals for major projects is an admission of long-standing failure. Canada’s regulatory system for infrastructure and resource development has become slow, uncertain, and politicized. While Ottawa now speaks of one or two year approval windows and continues expanding entities like the Major Projects Office, deeper...
In economics, the concept of “moral hazard” describes a situation where an individual or institution is more likely to take reckless risks because they do not bear the negative consequences of those risks. It is an idea with which Prime Minister Mark Carney is very familiar, having been a vocal critic of the claim that banks were “too big to...
Donald Trump must enjoy what has now become diplomatic protocol for dealing with him on the world stage — namely, flattery and deference. Mark Carney caught on to it early, calling Trump a “transformational president” during his first White House sit-down with him more than a year ago.
British prime ministers have for the past 65 years had their public image satirized in Private Eye magazine, an often-unflattering pastiche that generally finds its way into the mainstream culture. From the outset of his time in No. 10 Downing Street, Keir Starmer — who on Monday announced plans to resign — was portrayed as a dull, indecisive, overly cautious...
Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty was just one seat shy of securing a third majority mandate when he led his party to win the 2011 Ontario election. It wasn’t a great result – the Liberals won 18 fewer seats than they had the previous election – but it was still a win, and Mr. McGuinty’s approval rating was a respectable (for...
British Columbia is Canada’s third-largest province. It has the country’s fourth-largest economy. And right now, it might be the single most overlooked and underappreciated member of Confederation. Alberta’s willingness to indulge a separatist temper tantrum is consuming most of the attention that’s not already dedicated to dealing with Donald Trump, and it has already elicited a number of policy concessions...
On this date in 2013, much of Calgary's downtown was underwater from the greatest flood ever to hit southern Alberta. City hall, with provincial help, worked furiously to make the Calgary Stampede happen. A slimmed-down version opened on schedule. It was a stunning feat of united action by governments and the Stampede, then led by CEO Vern Kimball.
Crackle! Sizzle! Roar! Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas is on fire. "A permit is not a free pass to keep people awake for 11 nights because someone powerful demands it. "Rick, you spoke up for years. You were told to call 311. You were told to wait while people with money, access and powerful friends expected city hall to look the other way.
The Cannabis Council of Canada has announced it is suspending its advocacy operation, apparently because its member companies have given up hope that the federal government is prepared to listen to them. In a letter to Finance Minister François Philippe Champagne that foreshadowed this week's announcement, outgoing council president Paul McCarthy said the country's licensed cannabis producers have lost confidence...
Mark Carney knows how to work a room. Twenty years of top-level international summitry as a finance mandarin, central banker and prime minister have honed that skill. More important: Carney knows how to read a room. In Davos earlier this year, attendees wanted to hear some sort of plan to contain U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating insanity. So the prime...
No prime minister has the luxury of being able to worry about a single problem. But among Mark Carney’s many problems, one looms particularly large: managing Canada’s relationship with the United States and its president. And Carney faces a difficult question on that file: How flattering to Donald Trump can he dare to be? We saw some examples recently of...
Many Canadians fervently hope that the next midterm elections will return the United States to a state of political normalcy. But there is simply too much money, too much fear, and too much potential for political retribution embedded in the system to expect a rapid correction.
A referendum is looming in Alberta, which will reveal this fall how far the province is ready to go toward the independence option. For the rest of Canada, a big question revolves around how much are we willing to do to keep Alberta in the federation. Some new polling by Abacus Data may offer some insights into that question and...
As the Carney government wraps up the parliamentary sitting this week, political watchers may be forgiven for thinking they’ve entered a time warp. Opposition MPs — Conservatives prominently among them — stood in the House of Commons, sounding the alarm over Liberal attempts to shut down debate, halt committee studies, block witnesses and stop amendments. The government’s moves were an...
The memorandum of understanding Donald Trump cobbled together with Iran’s leadership may seem far removed from Canada’s negotiations over the future of CUSMA. However, the Iran deal, hastily concluded under intense economic pressure, offers three clear lessons for Ottawa: know your leverage, understand what truly frightens Trump, and resist the urge to fold too early. On paper, Iran and Canada...
The House of Commons adjourned its spring sitting on Thursday after Liberals used their recently acquired majority to push some bills through with unanimous consent. The Pulse Panel weighs in.
Mark Carney says Donald Trump’s peace deal with Iran is a “game changer.” If that game is Risk, then the U.S. president just rolled snake eyes, announced he didn’t want to play anymore and began eating some of the plastic soldiers. I remain perplexed as to why our prime minister continues to commend a war that has always been an...
You know things are getting a bit desperate when a politician starts cutting $100 “affordability” cheques to buy back a bit of political goodwill. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s decision to pass on a slice of the province's recent gas tax windfall directly to residents smacks of a payoff, and a paltry one at that.
They were the kind of words a parent might say to convince a child scrunching his nose at his birthday present that it’s really what he wanted: “I thought you’d actually like that.” In this case, the Prime Minister of Canada was speaking to the President of the United States. Mark Carney was trying to convince Donald Trump that a...
Prime Minister Mark Carney apparently has a patience problem. According to the Toronto Star’s Althia Raj, sources within the party complain that he raises his voice (or he yells, depending on the receiver) and openly shows his displeasure when caucus discussions veer into what he considers political navel-gazing. To career politicians accustomed to consensus-building, this behaviour feels abrasive. It is...
Well, we now know how many Dani Dollars Albertans are getting. Albertans 18 and older who've filed their taxes and have a household income of $225,000 a year or less will score a tax-free $100. Just so you know, the Alberta government considers a household to be a single person or two people who are married or in a common-law...
US President Donald Trump may have finally found a way out of the war he started with Iran. No, it doesn’t come close to regime change, which was one of the Trump administration’s initial justifications for the war. There isn’t even a return of political prisoners, constraints on the country’s proxy forces in the Middle East or an end to...
The anti-Trump view of world affairs, dictated this week by the Iranian mullahs, will hold that U.S. President Donald Trump has surrendered. It is worth remembering that when Hamas invaded Israel and massacred 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 others on Oct. 7, 2023, Iran was well on its way toward developing nuclear weapons, hoped that the Hamas invasion of...
First Nations leaders and parliamentarians say the Liberals’ reintroduced clean water legislation is the latest example of what they describe as a “pick-and-choose” approach to the federal government’s duty to consult—invoking constitutional obligations to delay or dismiss action when it’s convenient, and sidelining them when decisions are already made.
Ottawa is expected to announce Wednesday that it will begin the process of designating two key Arctic infrastructure projects as being in the national interest, say government sources. The projects are the first Ottawa has signalled it will elevate to become projects of national interest under the Building Canada Act, which allows the government to fast-track approvals and allow them...
Canada's goal of boosting trade with countries outside the United States could be thwarted by its new pesticide rules, a senator warns. Bill C-30, an omnibus bill implementing the spring economic update, passed both the House of Commons and the Senate last week. The legislation includes a change to Canada's Pest Control Products Act that allows cabinet to override Health...
The Holt government is embracing a proposal for more nuclear power in New Brunswick, jumping ahead of its own timeline for evaluating the idea despite N.B. Power’s concerns about the cost to ratepayers. At the release of a new federal nuclear strategy on Monday, Energy Minister René Legacy said that the technology “most assuredly will be part of our future.”...
The officer commanding one of the Canadian Army's leading regular force battalions and the unit's top non-commissioned officer have been removed from their position. Lt.-Col. Jason Hudson and Chief Warrant Officer Kim Doerr, of the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton, were apparently forced to step aside over the weekend, several military sources said Tuesday.
A dispute that began with snarky social media posts between Alberta's premier and Calgary's mayor escalated Tuesday into a full on government-to-government standoff. Calgary city councillors voted to reject proposed changes to noise rules ahead of the upcoming Calgary Stampede festival despite a warning letter from Premier Danielle Smith that if changes weren't made by June 30, the province would intervene.
The JS Natori, a newly commissioned warship, embodies the future of Japan’s Self-Defence Force. Built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the frigate has a vertical-launch missile system and can sail in stealth mode. Japan has already sold a fleet of the frigates to Australia and it’s looking for more buyers. Future versions of the ship could also be a potential platform...
With little more than a week before the July 1 deadline to either renew or review the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra says officials are nowhere near the finish line. “We’re not anywhere close to announcing any type of a framework or an interim agreement,” Hoekstra told CTV News chief political correspondent Vassy Kapelos in a wide-ranging...
OTTAWA -- Immigration Minister Lena Diab said she told her department to investigate when she became aware that "something" had happened to trigger a wave of citizenship document recalls.
As Ottawa inches closer to deciding who will supply the navy's next fleet of submarines, both the benefits and challenges involved in replacing Canada's four rusting antiques are coming to the surface. While the industrial benefits from the submarine project will start to flow once contract details are hammered out, experts say major questions still need to be answered about...
An urban planning expert says a plan to convert empty condominiums into affordable housing in British Columbia might be more about stabilizing the financial sector than housing. Some have criticized the federal and B.C. government's plan to convert unsold condos in a plan that Prime Minister Mark Carney said would use "innovative financial tools" as the most efficient ways to...
OTTAWA -- Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand announced $35 million in new funding Tuesday for projects aimed at shoring up security and curbing violence in the Caribbean.
Two years and one general election later, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says the long-awaited foreign influence registry is “weeks” away from being operational. Yet, as his department is confident it is “very close to the finish line” after repeated missed deadlines and delays, critics say combatting foreign interference and transnational repression is “clearly not a priority” for the current...
The Conservative leader criticized woke indulgences and rejected efforts to divide Canadians based on race, gender, or other characteristics.
The premier’s office says a Ford Fest photo that appeared to have been edited to make protesters look like supporters was the result of “routine” colour correcting. Officials offered the explanation Monday, after a photo posted online by a pair of Progressive Conservative MPPs over the weekend raised eyebrows for what appeared to be a digital alteration.
Several Ontario First Nations are set to become owners of a new nuclear reactor after striking a commercial partnership with the federal and provincial governments. Ottawa and Ontario are providing loan guarantees of $700 million to the seven Williams Treaties First Nations east of Toronto that will turn into equity for one of the four small modular reactors that are...
Liberals would need to win 1 of 6 upcoming races to maintain control of the House. The countdown for half a dozen byelections is on as MPs who have signalled they won't be returning to Ottawa in the fall begin to vacate their seats. Six MPs say they intend to resign over the summer. While voters in those ridings wait...
Canada’s ethanol industry is asking Ottawa to act quickly to protect it from an increase in subsidized U.S. imports of the clean fuel. U.S. ethanol imports have grown to make up around 70 per cent of the Canadian market, compared to 50 per cent five years ago, according to Renewable Industries Canada, an association representing biofuels producers. This is largely...
Montreal police (SPVM) say one officer is dead and another is in critical condition following a shooting in the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood. Shortly before 1:45 p.m., the SPVM confirmed that one of the officers was killed. A civilian also died in the altercation, and the suspect was killed. Officers were called to the scene at 11:35 a.m. at the corner of...
Industry Minister Melanie Joly said she has made it clear to four Chinese electric vehicle makers that getting more access to the Canadian market will require them to “build where you sell.” But as she courts Chinese EV manufacturers to build another lifeline for the domestic auto industry as it buckles under the uncertainty of the CUSMA review, Japanese auto...
A trustee at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is quitting the organization’s board over an upcoming exhibit about the late 1940s displacement of Palestinians, saying its lack of vital historical context will stir up hostility against Jewish people. Mark Berlin submitted his resignation on Monday in a letter addressed to Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, and...
Promising to “unlock (Canada’s) full potential as an energy superpower,” the federal government unveiled its new Nuclear Energy Strategy on Monday. The 23-page strategy is structured around four pillars: enabling new builds, being a supplier and exporter of choice, expanding uranium production and nuclear fuel opportunities, and developing new nuclear innovations. The Liberal government signalled earlier this year that the...
Supreme Court of Canada nominee Glenn Joyal describes himself as a "candid and constructive spokesperson" for Manitoba's highest trial court and the judiciary. Prime Minister Mark Carney has tapped Joyal, chief justice of the Court of King's Bench of Manitoba since 2011, to fill the vacancy on the country's top court left by the retiring Sheilah Martin.
The federal government wants another high-speed rail stop — making the would-be line less speedy. On Monday, Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon directed Alto to consider an additional stop in Kingston, Ont., in what would be a potential major change to the project — a move that drew swift criticism from opponents and raised questions about planning and costs. Coming on...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is saying goodbye to his British counterpart after the two met repeatedly to discuss a shared vision for western countries. Conceding that he had lost the support of the party membership, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Monday he will resign once his Labour Party chooses a new leader. "Throughout, and in the face of exceptional...
Statistics Canada says high gas prices pushed the annual rate of inflation to 3.2 per cent in May. That’s up from 2.8 per cent in April and marks the first time annual inflation has topped three per cent since late 2023. The agency says gas prices rose for the third consecutive month in May thanks to the Middle East war...
The federal government will consider adding a stop in Kingston, Ont., to the Alto high-speed rail project, opting to pursue a southern route that bypasses the Highway 7 corridor, the Star has learned. Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon will be in Kingston on Monday morning, when he will make the announcement and release the government’s consultation report that summarizes thousands of...
The federal government wants to dramatically scale up the use of nuclear power and the export of Canadian-owned reactor technology through a new strategy that sets a goal of increasing by more than 50 per cent the number of large-scale reactors in Canada. In a policy document to be released on Monday by Energy Minister Tim Hodgson, and obtained by...
Excluding ministers' records from access legislation is 'offensive,' expert says. Premier Doug Ford's daily calendar will now be kept secret from the public, CBC News has confirmed, following recent changes to Ontario's freedom of information law — which no longer includes access to records held by ministers and their offices.
Manitoba's Chief Justice Glenn Joyal has been nominated to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court of Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney says Joyal has demonstrated the integrity, experience and judgment required of the Supreme Court.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Duane Mitchell has big plans for the United States' 250th anniversary.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is retreating from a plan to use warehouses to hold up to 10,000 people on a single site, jettisoning a key piece of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's $38-billion plan to rapidly expand detention capacity this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican senators who have been at odds with President Donald Trump in recent weeks will have a chance to confront him face-to-face when he attends a party luncheon in the Capitol on Wednesday.
The Pentagon has told senators it needs roughly $80 billion, mostly to cover the cost of the U.S. war against Iran, adding to an already sizable military spending boost sought by President Donald Trump. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill ahead of a formal request.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is saying goodbye to his British counterpart after the two met repeatedly to discuss a shared vision for western countries. Conceding that he had lost the support of the party membership, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Monday he will resign once his Labour Party chooses a new leader. "Throughout, and in the face of exceptional...
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday he is stepping down as leader of the governing Labour Party and will leave office within weeks, forced out by his own party scarcely two years after being elected in a landslide. Starmer says he will remain caretaker prime minister until the party chooses a new Labour leader -- with expectations growing that...
U.S. and Iranian negotiators headed to a Swiss venue Saturday for talks on adding key details to their interim agreement to halt the war, hours after Tehran said it closed the Strait of Hormuz because of Israel’s attacks in Lebanon and warned that little might be achieved if the fighting doesn’t stop. U.S. President Donald Trump, in response, threatened to...
Talks between the U.S. and Iran were called off Friday after intense fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, officials said, raising questions about an initial agreement to end the war in Iran.
Keeping a nuclear weapon out of Iran's hands is 'why this all started,' says Carney. Prime Minister Mark Carney is again praising the new U.S.-Iran peace deal after calling the war "worth it" — if it ensures Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Carney said keeping a nuclear weapon out of Iran's hands was...
On June 1, 2026, Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered his first major speech devoted to antisemitism, telling an audience at Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple that “Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians.” The acknowledgement was overdue and, in important respects, welcome. But the speech fell short in others. For instance, the prime minister did not name the movements behind the...
Canada’s impact assessment process is structurally fragmented. A new AI-enabled Sovereign Impact Assessment Agent (SIAA) would speed up assessments and save money by using the federal government’s extensive but fragmented troves of data on Canadian land, water, wildlife and atmosphere to pre-populate assessment applications, identify information gaps and help inform regulators’ final decisions.
On June 12th, the American artificial intelligence company Anthropic —maker of the Claude AI assistant— issued an extraordinary statement, whose opening paragraph reads as follows: “The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s own department, the Privy Council Office (PCO), has become the bad boy of freedom of information in Canada.
Secrecy surrounding cabinet documents is so absolute in Canada that critics look to theology and astrophysics for metaphors to describe it. Federal cabinet records in Canada are treated as “sacred artefacts to be shrouded in mystery for decades, hidden in a black hole beyond the contemplation of judges, commissioners, or citizens.”
In 2007, Roger Martin, then dean of the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, wrote a book called The Opposable Mind. It argued that the most successful leaders tend to be “integrative thinkers,” by which he meant they tackled problems holistically rather than breaking them down into component parts. Instead of seeking trade-offs, they are at ease with...
It's a very difficult decision to make whether you are a professional athlete or a practising politician. When to retire. But the time comes for everyone, so how do you decide the time has come for you? That's one of the main questions for James Moore and Gerald Butts during their latest "conversation" right here on The Bridge.
Also: so, Britain basically can't govern itself, eh? In today’s episode of On The Line, host Matt Gurney is joined by two guests for conversations about housing, politics, and why governments sometimes struggle to explain themselves.
David Herle, Scott Reid, Jordan Leichnitz, and Kory Teneycke provide insights on the latest in Canadian politics.
Mondays with Dr. Janice Stein are always a learning experience, and it sure has been since the end of February, with the war in Iran. And in spite of alleged "peace deals," we're still wondering if the conflict will ever end. It's complicated and that's why Dr. Stein is with us again this week.
